WAINIHA — A landslide and raging waters in the Hanalei River closed Kuhio Highway at two places on Thursday.
But, by mid-afternoon, the road was cleared and reopened and a break in the clouds gave the island a little time to dry out.
“We opened the shelter three different times,” said Padraic Gallagher, Kauai director of American Red Cross, of the shelter at Hanalei School.
He continued: “We had volunteers out there past midnight (Wednesday night) and then today again at 7:30 (a.m.), we had to send someone across again and reopen the shelter.”
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kauai about 11 a.m. Wednesday due to heavy rains over the island.
At noon that same day, Kuhio Highway at Hanalei Bridge was closed for the first of three times throughout Wednesday and Thursday.
The last closure on Thursday was announced at 8:45 a.m. due to high water levels in the Hanalei River, and at the same time the Department of Transportation announced a landslide had closed part of the road at mile marker 5 in Wainiha.
The landslide is the third on Kauai’s North Shore in three weeks.
By noon, DOT reported the highway was reopened at Hanalei Bridge and the landslide in Wainiha had been cleared.
“It’s not as bad as the ones in February,” Tim Sakahara, DOT spokesman told TGI as crews were responding to the landslide. “It’s a matter of getting to the landslide first, once they get there, it’s not anticipated to take more than a few hours.”
The landslide didn’t cover the entire road and that’s partially due to work DOT staff has been doing since late February, when two landslides completely closed Kuhio Highway for two days.
At 6 a.m. Friday, Feb. 23, DOT was notified of the first landslide and crews responded, working to remove boulders and tons of dirt blocking the road between mile markers 4 and 6.
During cleanup, a second and larger landslide occurred, blocking the roadway again.
“We also had to scale the slope in order to remove additional rocks and boulders that could come loose and become a hazard to drivers below,” Sakahara said. “Rock scaling experts with Access Limited Construction were brought in to help with the rappel work to remove loose boulders in the hillside.”
A variety of equipment was utilized to complete the work including front loaders, dump trucks, a skid steer loader and a pilot car to escort passenger vehicles through the area.
Crews were able to contraflow traffic starting the next day, Saturday, and both lanes were cleared and the road opened on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 3:10 p.m.
That work made a difference, according to DOT, because the larger rocks from the area had already been removed before Thursday’s landslide.
“The rock scaling done after the previous (February) landslides removed the majority of the large, loose rocks,” DOT representatives said. “Our Kauai District is preparing a scope of work for a slope stabilization project at this location.”
Guardrail replacement is proposed as part of the project, which is still being formulated and will be presented when DOT has finalized the project.
Over the 24-hour period ending at 2 p.m. Thursday, Lihue Airport had received 1.5 inches of rain according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During that same time period, Hanalei reported 1.6 inches, Kapahi reported 4.3 inches, Poipu was at 1.6 inches and Waimea Heights reported 4.4 inches.
Most of the rainfall tapered off about noon, according to NOAA, with no precipitation recorded at any of those locations between noon and 2 p.m.
Forecasts point to scattered showers through today, with a chance of a cloudy — but drier — weekend for Kauai.
